1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to determination of a page break position in document data being printed.
2. Description of Related Art
A web page is described using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). HTML includes therein a large number of specifications concerning visual layout in a web page. However, HTML is originally for describing the logical structure of a document. Describing the layout in a web page using HTML may make the logical structure of the document hard to understand. For this reason, CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is devised as a means for describing the layout in a web page. By use of CSS, information on page layout, such as font, character size, character decoration, and line spacing, can be separated from each HTML document including the logical structure of the document. This makes it easy to construct a page layout and can realize a variety of expressions in a web page.
HTML includes no specification concerning page break. Therefore, a web page described only using HTML can not be printed with inserting a page break at an arbitrary position. On the other hand, CSS defines three commands for inhibiting a page break, that is, BA (Before Avoid) for inhibiting a page break before a document, IA (Inside Avoid) for inhibiting a page break inside the document, and AA (After Avoid) for inhibiting a page break after the document.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a print control apparatus comprises a disposing unit for disposing, on pages, document data described in a page description language; a detecting unit for detecting a page break allowable position in the document data on the basis of page break inhibition information related to the document data; a first storage unit for storing the page break allowable position detected by the detecting unit; a second storage unit for storing a disposition range in each page for the document data to be disposed by the disposing unit; and a determining unit for determining a page break position in the document data on the basis of the page break allowable position stored in the first storage unit and the disposition range in each page stored in the second storage unit, such that part of the document data to be disposed in each page does not overflow the page.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a print control method comprises the steps of disposing, on pages, document data described in a page description language; detecting a page break allowable position in the document data on the basis of page break inhibition information related to the document data; storing the page break allowable position detected in the step of detecting the page break allowable position; and determining a page break position in the document data on the basis of the page break allowable position stored in the step of storing the page break allowable position and a disposition range in each page for the document data to be disposed in the step of disposing the document data, such that part of the document data to be disposed in each page does not overflow the page.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a computer program product comprises a disposing program for disposing, on pages, document data described in a page description language; a detecting program for detecting a page break allowable position in the document data on the basis of page break inhibition information related to the document data; a storing program for storing, in a memory, the page break allowable position detected by the detecting program; and a determining program for determining a page break position in the document data on the basis of the page break allowable position stored in the memory by the storing program and a disposition range in each page for the document data, such that part of the document data to be disposed in each page does not overflow the page.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a printer comprises a disposing unit for disposing, on pages, document data described in a page description language; a detecting unit for detecting a page break allowable position in the document data on the basis of page break inhibition information related to the document data; a first storage unit for storing the page break allowable position detected by the detecting unit; a second storage unit for storing a disposition range in each page for the document data to be disposed by the disposing unit; a determining unit for determining a page break position in the document data on the basis of the page break allowable position stored in the first storage unit and the disposition range in each page stored in the second storage unit, such that part of the document data to be disposed in each page does not overflow the page; and a printing unit for printing with inserting a page break in the document data on the basis of the page break position determined by the determining unit.
According to the invention, page break processing for document data to be printed can be properly performed using page break inhibition information related to the document data. In the invention, xe2x80x9cdocument dataxe2x80x9d means data including therein text data or image data, or data not including therein text data or image data but describing therein information for linking to the text data or image data and including therein an HTML file and interface data as will be described later.